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Home , AUDELCO, Detroit (play), Dinner with Friends, Disgraced, Dividing the Estate, Dominique Morisseau

Study Guide: Students & Educators SKELETON CREW

Heather Baird Director of Education

Tyler Easter Education Associate

Fran Tarr Education Coordinator

1 SECTION I | THE PLAY Synopsis Characters Setting Themes

SECTION II | CAST & CREATIVE SECTION III | YOUR STUDENTS AS AUDIENCE Theater Vocabulary Relating Themes to Our Own Lives: Anatomy of ’s Decline Playwright Dominique Morisseau Can’t Forget the Motor City Webbing & Discussion Triggers SECTION IV | YOUR STUDENTS AS ACTORS Reading a Scene for Understanding Practical Aesthetics Exercise Mini-Lesson Vocabulary Scene Analysis Worksheet

SECTION V | YOUR STUDENTS AS ARTISTS Post Theater Creative Response Activity Post Theater Creative Activity Challenge the Plot Common Core & DOE Theater Blueprint

SECTION VI | THE ATLANTIC LEGACY

2 Section I: PLAY

The Play PLAY Synopsis Characters Setting Themes

3 SYNOPSIS SETTING In Dominique Morisseau’s third play in her Detroit trilogy, a make- Detroit, . Stamping shift family of workers at the last exporting auto plant in the city Plant. Winter. Somewhere navigate the possibility of foreclosure. Power dynamics shift, and around year 2008. they are pushed to the limits of survival. When the line between blue collar and white collar gets blurred, how far over the lines are they willing to step?

THEMES FAYE Power Black woman, mid-late 50’s, Working class woman. Tough and a lifetime Masculinity/Femininity of dirt beneath her nails. Somewhere, deep compassion. Race Social Justice DEZ “A Cog in a Machine” Black man, mid-late 20’s, Working class man. Young hustler, playful, street-savvy, and flirtatious. Somewhere, deeply sensitive. Worker’s Rights Sacrifice SHANITA Loyalty Black woman, mid-late 20’s, Working class young woman. Pretty but not Desperation ruled by it. Hard-working. By-the-books. Believes in the work she does. The Greater Good Also, pregnant. Somewhere, a beautiful dreamer. Pride/Ownership REGGIE Black man, late 30’s. White collar man. Studious. Dedicated. Compassionate. The Foreman. Somewhere, a fire brims.

4 Section II: Cast & Creative CAST Director And CAST Cast Bios

5 DOMINIQUE MORISSEAU RUBEN SANTIAGO-HUDSON JASON DIRDEN WENDELL B. FRANKLIN Playwright Director (Dez) (Reggie)

DOMINIQUE MORISSEAU RUBEN SANTIAGO-HUDSON JASON DIRDEN (Dez). Broadway: WENDELL B. FRANKLIN (Reggie). (Playwright) is an alumna of the (Director) most recently staged A In The Sun, . Off Broadway and Regional; Speak Public Theater Emerging Writer’s the Encores! revival of Cabin in the Off-Broadway and Regional: The Truth to Power (Culture Project); Group, Women’s Project Lab, and Sky at NY City Center. Other recent Piano Lesson, The First Breeze Brother from the Bottom, Playwrights Workshop. Credits productions include the world of Summer (Signature Theatre), Desire (Billie Holiday Theatre); include: Skeleton Crew (Sundance; premieres of Dominique Morisseau’s Stickfly (Huntington Theatre), Every Fences (People’s Light, Arkansas Lark Barebones); Paradise Blue Paradise Blue at The Williamstown Tongue Confess (), Rep); (La Jolla Playhouse, (Williamstown Theatre Festival); Theatre Festival and Your Blues Ain’t , Topdog/Underdog Huntington Theatre, Berkeley Detroit ’67 (Public Theater, Classical Sweet Like Mine at The Two River (Two River Theater). Recent TV: Repertory); Theatre of Harlem/NBT); Blood at Theater Co. Other directing credits Elementary (CBS), Greenleaf (OWN). (Virginia Stage, Weston Playhouse); the Root (Penn State); Sunset Baby include (OBIE, Twitter/Instagram: @jasondirden. Gee’s Bend (Cleveland Playhouse). (Gate Theatre; LAByrinth Theatre); Lucille Lortel, Joseph A. Callaway, MFA: Penn State University. Follow Me to Nellie’s (O’Neill; Audelco), The Happiest Song Plays Premiere Stages). Her 3-play cycle, Last (Second Stage Theatre), My entitled “The Detroit Projects” Children! My Africa!, Seven Guitars include Detroit ’67, Paradise Blue and The First Breeze of Summer all and Skeleton Crew. Her play Blood at The Signature Theatre Company at the Root has toured internationally and Things of Dry Hours at NY and garnered her production The Theatre Workshop. His screenplay Graham F. Smith Peace Foundation adaptation of his autobiographical Award. Dominique has been play Lackawanna Blues garnered commissioned by Steppenwolf, numerous awards including The LCT3, Women’s Project, South Humanitas Prize, National Board Coast Rep, People’s Light & Theatre of Reviews, NAACP Image Award and Oregon Shakespeare Festival/ and The Christopher Award as Penumbra Theater. Awards: Jane well as Emmy, Golden Globe and Chambers Playwriting Award, WGA nominations. As an actor, Mr. two-time NAACP Image Award, Santiago-Hudson is the recipient of a Stavis Playwriting Award, Spirit of Tony Award®, , Clarence Detroit Award, Weissberger Award, Derwent and Helen Hayes Awards PoNY Fellowship, Sky-Cooper New among others. Ruben holds a BA American Play Prize, TEER Spirit from Binghamton University, an MFA Trailblazer Award, the Steinberg from Wayne State University and Playwright Award and the Edward M. Doctor of Humane Letters Honors Kennedy Prize for Drama. from Wayne State University and Buffalo State College.

6 LYNDA GRAVATT NIKIYA MATHIS ADESOLA OSAKALUMI (Faye) (Shanita) (Choreography/ Performer) LYNDA GRAVATT (Faye). Broadway: Off Broadway: Fidelis, The Brother , Doubt, Sister Plays; In the & Brown ADESOLA OSAKALUMI King Hedley II , 45 Seconds from Water; Marcus; or the Secret of (Choreographer/Performer) starred Broadway. Off Broadway: The Sweet, (Public Theater); Milk Like in the original Broadway cast, Hummingbird’s Tour (Theatre at St. Sugar (); national and international tours of Clements), The Little Foxes (NYTW), Seed (Classical Theatre of Harlem). Fela! and Fela! The Concert and the Zooman and the Sign, King Hedley II Regional: The Blood Quilt (Arena Broadway revival of (Nugget (Signature), Crowns (Second Stage), Stage); By The Way Meet Vera Stark U/S, ensemble). New York/Regional Miss Witherspoon (Playwrights (Alliance Theatre); The Mountaintop theater includes: In Your Arms (Old Horizons), Intimate Apparel (Milwaukee Repertory Theater); Globe Theatre), Ngwino Ubeho (Roundabout), The Old Settler, Intimate Apparel (Two River Theater); (Sundance Theatre Lab), Eyewitness Dividing the Estate (). Eclipsed (McCarter Theatre); Milk Blues (New York Theatre Workshop), Regional: Guess Who’s Coming to Like Sugar (La Jolla Playhouse); Jam on the Groove (Minetta Lane Dinner? (Arena Stage, Huntington), The Brother Sister Plays (McCarter Theatre, Drama Desk nominee). A Raisin in the Sun (Chautauqua, Theatre); The Continuum Company’s Film includes: Sex and the City 2, Westport Country Playhouse, Geva Romeo and Juliet (Florence, Italy). Crazy Beats Strong Every Time, The Theatre, Hartford Stage), Polk County Commercials: Diet Coke “Heart Accidental Husband, Across the (McCarter, Berkeley Rep), Crowns Health,” Kraft Macaroni and Cheese Universe, Enchanted and Idlewild. (Arena Stage), The Young Man from “Pregnant,” Nationwide Insurance As a choreographer for film: School Atlanta (Huntington, Alley), Humana “Atlanta Falcon’s House.” Television: of Rock, Marci X. Commercials and Festival 2016 (Actors Theatre of “Braindead” (recurring), “Elementary,” theater include: Broadway Bares, Louisville). Television: “Elementary,” “Person of Interest,” “Madam ESPN, Old Navy, PBS Kids, Halifax “Person of Interest,” “The Good Secretary,” “Crime.” Film: Compliance Bank, Advil. A New York native, NEA Wife,” “30 Rock,” all the “Law & (dir. Craig Zobel); Knucklehead (dir. Grant recipient and Bessie Award Order” series, “One Life to Live,” “As Ben Bowman). BA: Temple University, winner, Adesola was introduced to The World Turns,” “All My Children.” MFA: NYU Graduate Acting. the performing arts by his family and Film: The Delivery Man, Bounty believes the responsibility of an artist Hunter, I Hate Valentine’s Day, Who is to enlighten and inspire. Killed Atlanta’s Children?. Three adesola.com. Twitter: @AdesolaO Audelco Awards, Helen Hayes Award, Connecticut Critics Circle Award. Graduate of Howard University. Proud Member of Actors Equity.

7 East ( Theater), The Geffen Playhouse, Yale Rep); The Charity events with BC/EFA, Broadway MICHAEL CARNAHAN Day Emily Married (Primary Stages), Mountaintop (Playmakers Rep); I Saw Dreams Foundations, ASTEP, The (Scenic Designer) and (Variety Arts My Neighbor on the Train and I Didn’t Actors Fund. PSU Graduate. Proud AEA First National Tour: A Christmas Story- Center). His Off Broadway revivals Even Smile (Berkshire Theatre Group), member. The Musical; Off-Broadway: I and You include The Piano Lesson (Signature), as well as productions with Abrons (59E59); The Happiest Song Plays Last Talley's Folly & The Milk Train Doesn't Art Center, Premieres NYC, Ars Nova, CAPARELLIOTIS CASTING (Second Stage); The Piano Lesson Stop Here Anymore (Roundabout), Heartbeat Opera, Joe’s Pub, Nashville (casting) Current Broadway: (Signature Theatre); The First Breeze and Engaged (Obie Award, Theatre for Symphony, Hartford Symphony, I am a Blackbird and The Father. Recent and of Summer (Signature Theatre); Life a New Audience). His recent regional Boys Choir, SummerWorks Toronto and Select Broadway/Off-Broadway: An Could Be A Dream; The Marvelous credits include Alley Theatre, Arena La MaMa Summer Share. Nicholas was Act of God, Fish in the Dark, It’s Only a Wonderettes; Three Mo’ Tenors; Stage, American Conservatory Theater, the Artistic Associate at Triad Stage in Play, Airline Highway, , Sex Pygmalion; Howie the Rookie; Brando. Center Theatre Group, Ford's Theatre, Greensboro, North Carolina where he with Strangers, Lost Lake, The Country Regional: Arena Stage, American Guthrie, Huntington Theatre Company, continues to design new works based House, Casa Valentina, Holler if Ya Hear Conservatory Theater, McCarter Shakespeare Theatre, Two River, on Appalachian life written by Preston Me, The Trip to Bountiful, Fences. Also: Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Oregon Shakespeare, Old Globe, and Lane. Nickhussong.com. MTC, 2nd Stage, LCT3, Ars Nova, Old Pasadena Playhouse, Two River Williamstown Theatre Festival. Globe, Goodman, Arena, McCarter Theater, Cleveland Play House, Laguna LAURA WILSON and others. Film/television: “American Playhouse, Utah Shakespearean ROBERT KAPLOWITZ (Production Stage Odyssey” (NBC), “How to Get Away Festival, Northlight Theatre, Signature (Original Music & Sound Broadway: , With Murder” pilot (ABC), “Ironside” Theatre (Arlington, VA), Bucks County Manager) has been designing sound First Date, A Free Man of Color, The pilot (NBC), “Steel Magnolias” (Sony for Playhouse, Ogunquit Playhouse, Design) and composing for 23 years, and People in the Picture. Off-Broadway: Lifetime). Arsht Center, West, has been honored with an OBIE for Exit Strategy (Primary Stages), The San Jose Repertory, Center Rep. Sustained Excellence in Sound Design Really Big Once, A Family of Perhaps ACTORS’ EQUITY ASSOCIATION Broadway (Associate Scenic Designer): and a Tony® for Fela! His work was Three (Target Margin Theater). Tour: founded in 1913, is Allegiance; The River, Peter and The (“Equity”) last heard here at the Atlantic in Lucy Soul Doctor. Regional: Bull Durham the US labor union that represents Starcatcher; ANN: The Ann Richards Thurber’s The Bottom of the World. In (Alliance Theatre); 's more than 50,000 actors and stage Play; Cyrano de Bergerac; The NYC, he’s designed on Broadway, as Seven Guitars, Ruben Santiago- managers. Equity seeks to foster Importance of Being Earnest; Bloody well as for The Public, NYTW, MCC, Hudson's Your Blues Ain't Sweet Like the art of live theatre as an essential Bloody Andrew Jackson; All About Me; 2nd Stage, the Vineyard, MTC, Lincoln Mine, Third (Two River Theater); Period component of society and advances the White Christmas; Curtains. Center 3 and just about every 99-seat- of Adjustment (Dir. by David Auburn), careers of its members by negotiating www.michaelcarnahandesign.com. or-smaller venue in the five boroughs. A Moonchildren (Dir. by Karen Allen), A wages, working conditions and Philadelphian since 2010, his work has Thousand Clowns (Berkshire Theatre providing a wide range of benefits PAUL TAZEWELL been heard there at PlayPenn, Wilma, Festival); Guys and Dolls (Riverside including health and pension plans. (Costume Designer) Interact, Arden, Lucidity Suitcase, Theatre); The Three Sisters, The Boys Actors’ Equity is a member of the NBC’s The Wiz! Live. Broadway: Pig Iron, Lantern, PTC, Flashpoint From Syracuse, and Naomi Wallace's AFL-CIO and is affiliated with FIA, an ; Dr. Zhivago; Side Show; A and Azuka; other credits include the Things of Dry Hours (Centerstage, international organization of performing Streetcar Named Desire (Tony nom); Guthrie, the Alley, Baltimore Center Baltimore); Lydia R. Diamond’s Stick arts unions. #EquityWorks Magic Bird: Jesus Christ Superstar; Stage, Sundance, the O’Neill and The Fly, Lee Blessing’s Lonesome Hollow, Lombardi; Memphis (Tony nom); Guys National Theatre of England. Richard Dresser's A View Of The Harbor THE SUNDANCE INSTITUTE and Dolls; In The Heights (Tony nom); (Contemporary American Theater The Sundance Institute Theatre The Color Purple (Tony nom); Hot JIMMY “J.KEYS” KEYS Festival); Tom Stoppard’s On the Razzle Program advances the work of risk- Feet; Caroline, or Change; A Raisin is a Brooklyn (Clarence Brown Theatre); All In The taking theatre artists by providing in the Sun; Drowning Crow; Bring in (Original Songs) based emcee hailing from Detroit. His Timing, Mac Wellman's School For developmental opportunities that ‘ Noise… (Tony nom); Elaine Stritch sound blends his midwest upbringing Devils (The Hangar Theatre). support artists throughout their at Liberty; On the Town; Fascinating and his years of east coast experience careers. Dedicated to meeting the Rhythm; Def Poetry Jam. Regional: to create his unique rhyming style. KELLY ICE changing needs of both established Side Show (La Jolla Playhouse), Guess He has performed at some of NYC’s and emerging theater-makers, the Who’s Coming to Dinner (Arena Stage). (Assistant Stage Manager) most important and legendary spaces, Off-Broadway: Skeleton Crew (ATC program offers support for those Off Broadway: Ruined, In The Heights, including S.O.B’s, B.B. Kings, NYC - Stage 2), Between Riverside and creating unique and compelling work McReele, Flesh and Blood, Fame, SummerStage, Santos Party House, Crazy (ATC), Nora (Cherry Lane), Gloria for the stage in its Labs and Retreats. Boston Marriage, Harlem Song. Opera: the Blue Note, Kraine Theater, Le (Vineyard), Little Children Dream of God Recent plays and musicals supported The Met, , Poisson Rouge, the Cutting Room, (Roundabout Underground), Queen by the program include Annie Washington Opera, Lyric, and Pianos. Additionally, he’s rocked of the Night (Variety Worldwide), Here Baker’s Circle Mirror Transformation, LA Opera, San Francisco Opera, NYC stages nationally in Los Angeles, Lies Love (), The Dominique Morisseau’s Skeleton Opera, Michigan Opera Theatre. Three Detroit, Atlanta, and internationally in Last Seder (Rosalind Productions, Inc.), Crew, Doug Wright’s Posterity, Stew’s Helen Hayes Awards, Lucille Lortel, Grahamstown, South Africa, Toronto Sleep No More (Punchdrunk/Emersive), Passing Strange, Branden Jacobs- Jefferson, Princess Grace, and Irene (NXNE), and London, England. He has Double Falsehood (CSC), The Road Jenkins’ Appropriate, and Fun Home by Sharaff awards. performed on the Mainstage at A3C To Qatar (York Theatre), Secrets of the Lisa Kron and Jeanine Tesori. Festival alongside such notables as Trade, Happy Now? (Primary Stages), of , Master Ace, and My Big Gay Italian Wedding, Spirit (Lighting Designer) has . A deep passionate artist with a Control (MTC), Coraline (MCC). New designed the Broadway productions of sense of humor and a sense of purpose, York: At Home Abroad, Arms and the Velocity of Autumn; Trip to Bountiful; J. Keys is excited to be composing Girl (UnSung Musicals), Smile (Singing Present Laughter; Dividing the Estate; original works for this production and OnStage), Deadline, Sarah At Noon, Old Acquaintance; Enchanted April consulting the team on Detroit hip hop The Wife (Lark Play Development among others. His Off-Broadway culture. Center), The Boys Upstairs (FringeNYC, premieres include Happiest Song Encore Series, & FringeBENEFITS). Plays Last (Second Stage) Just Jim NICHOLAS HUSSONG Regional: Tell Me On A Sunday, Dale (Roundabout), 's Wait Until Dark (Surflight Theatre), Old Friends & The Orphans' Home (Projections Designer) Regional credits include Grounded Thoroughly Modern Millie (Fulton Cycle (Hewes Award, Signature), (Alley Theatre); Theatre), Sisters of Swing (PA Centre Nightingale, Moonlight and Magnolias (Arden Theatre Company); These Paper Stage). Tours: Radio City Christmas ( Theatre Club), Big Bill, Bullets! (, Spectacular Arena Tour. Fundraising/ The Carpetbagger's Children, Far 8 Section III: AUDIENCE Your Students AUDIENCE As Audience Theater Vocabulary Relating Themes to Our Own Lives: Anatomy of Detroit’s Decline Playwright Dominique Morisseau Can’t Forget the Motor City Webbing & Discussion Triggers

9 “Plays should tell simple, honest stories.” ­—David Mamet, American playwright & noted actor, William H. Macy, founders of Atlantic Theater Company

The following activities will assist your students in understanding the intentions of the playwright to tell a simple story.

10 Teacher Objective To be able to discuss theater through a common, shared vocabulary.

Student Goal To understand that the most effective way to discuss theater and new ideas is through a shared vocabulary.

Action: The events that move along the story of the play and which influence the characters within the play.

Characters: Individuals the audience learns about from their actions and reactions.

Ensemble: A group of performers working together to create a complete production.

Dialogue: The exchange of speech between two characters which reveals the feelings of the character as well as the story of the play.

Monologue: A speech by one actor on stage which is intended to reveal the inner thoughts of the character the actor plays.

Character Arc: The change produced in a character by the events and other characters in the play.

Musical Theater: A twentieth century creation where writers and musicians collaborate to create a play which features song, dance and drama.

Mood: The overall feeling the play evokes.

Costume: The clothes, boots, etc., worn by the actors based on their character.

Prop: Objects used by an actor to enhance their character. For example, wine glasses at a bar for drinks.

Set: The constructed environment of a play within which the action takes place.

Sound: Noises and music used in the play.

11 Step One Write the Webbing Ideas on the WEBBING & chalkboard. Step Two Have each student add their impressions DISCUSSION of the meaning of one of these concepts on the board, and how it relates to their own experiences.

TRIGGERS Step Three Use the students’ responses to focus on how unique each student’s perception is Teacher Objective of these concepts. Why is this true? To develop critical thinking skills through examining the themes in Skeleton Crew. Step Four Ask the students to discuss how their Student Goal sense of personal self-esteem and/or To understand that the story of the play relates to their own vulnerability plays a role in their own lives. lives.

Materials Step Five Chalkboard, chalk, paper, pens, the webbing ideas, and Share the discussion trigger and discussion triggers. questions with the class. What are the obstacles we create for Webbing Ideas ourselves and others in our society, and Power what do we do when circumstances Masculinity/Femininity reveal the vulnerability behind those Race obstacles? Social Justice “A Cog in a Machine” What is reality, and can artists ever truly Worker’s Rights capture it? Sacrifice Loyalty Desperation The Greater Good Pride/Ownership

Discussion Questions In Act I, Faye shares this advice with Dez:

“…Told you don’t be listening to rumors. You inhale every rumor you clog up your lungs. Die of asphyxiation of other people’s bullshit.”

Do you agree with Faye’s observation? Disagree? Why or why not? 12 RELATING THEMES TO OUR OWN LIVES Anatomy of Detroit’s Decline by Amy Padnani produced by Jacky Myint December 27, 2013

Playwright Dominique Morisseau Can’t Forget the Motor City By Alexis Soloski The New York Times December 30, 2015

LYNDA GRAVATT in Skeleton Crew. Photo Credit: Ahron R. Foster

13 ANATOMY OF DETROIT’S DECLINE by Amy Padnani | produced by Jacky Myint | December 27, 2013 | The New York Times

In a matter of decades, Detroit went from one of America’s most prosperous cities to one of its most distressed. Here is a look at how the collapse of this metropolis – battered by financial missteps, racial tensions and leadership lapses – culminated in insurmountable debt that led the city to file for bankruptcy.

A workman adjusted a Ford Mustang at the final assembly line in a Detroit-area factory on Nov. 6, 1967. Preston Stroup/Associated Press

RELIANCE ON A SINGLE INDUSTRY The expansion of the auto industry nearly a century ago When the industry then experimented with automation, fueled a growth spurt that made Detroit the fourth largest replacing assembly-line jobs with machinery, tens of city in the country. By 1950, the population peaked at thousands of jobs were lost. The industry shrank even more almost 1.85 million as people moved to Detroit to work at during the energy crisis in the 1970s and the economic the Big Three auto companies: Ford, General Motors and recession in the 1980s. And foreign competition caused Chrysler. But it was at the height of this prosperity that profits to plummet. the manufacturers began to restructure, and the risks of the city’s reliance on a single industry became apparent, As auto jobs moved elsewhere and the region aged, according to Thomas J. Sugrue’s essay “Motor City: The Detroit’s labor costs — retiree health care costs, especially Story of Detroit.” — increased substantially.

First, there was decentralization. Strikes, inspired by union Though other cities experienced their own booms and negotiations and a refusal by blacks and whites to work side busts, Detroit suffered more because it didn’t diversify, said by side, were halting progress, according to “Detroit, Race Kevin Boyle, a Detroit historian who has written extensively and Uneven Development,” co-written by Joe T. Darden. about his native city. Places such as Chicago and Factories were built in the suburbs and in neighboring relied on other areas – like banking or education – beyond states so that if there was a protest in one factory, work the industries that started their success. could still continue elsewhere. But as the factories spread out, so too did the job opportunities. The auto industry “was like Silicon Valley in the 1980s,” Mr. Boyle said. It was doing so well, he said, that Detroit officials didn’t see a need to do anything differently. 14 A National Guardsman in Detroit during the riots of 1967. Associated Press

RACIAL TENSIONS Tensions between the races have been high since the neighborhood where I grew up, where my grandparents 1940s, when Southern blacks began moving to Detroit live or where my synagogue is’ — that really roots people in search of work at automobile factories, said Mr. Boyle, in place,” he said. “Detroit didn’t work that way.” the historian. During the 1950s, the city lost 363,000 white residents As the migration of blacks who swept into Detroit became while it gained 182,000 black residents. In 1950, the especially intense, middle-class whites began moving to population was 16 percent black, and by the time of the the newly built suburbs. But violent 1967 riots turned this 1967 riot it had grown to a third. Today, about 82 percent stream into a torrent. of the city’s population is black.

“It’s really hard to overstate how deep the fear was, on The Rev. Charles Williams II, who leads the Detroit chapter both sides of the color line,” Mr. Boyle said. of the National Action Network, said little had been done to ease tensions. Those strained relations have hindered And after the riots, Detroit failed to bounce back, Mr. Boyle the city’s efforts toward economic progress. said. Businesses followed their customers. Thousands of “Race has basically been used as a tool to pit people houses were abandoned as the city’s population plunged. against each other,” he said. “There’s a sincere, in-depth hate. Folks in the city have been taught to not trust those “In some cities like Chicago, Boston and maybe New in the suburbs. Folks in the suburbs don’t trust those in York, people say to themselves, ‘I want to be in this the city.”

15 Mayor Coleman A. Young of Detroit at an event in 1980. Richard Sheinwald/Associated Press

SHORTCOMINGS OF LEADERSHIP

The financial crisis facing Detroit was decades in the making, Edward Jeffries, who served as mayor from 1940 to 1948, caused in part by a trail of missteps, suspected corruption developed the Detroit Plan, which involved razing 100 and inaction. Here is a sampling of some city leaders who blighted acres and preparing the land for redevelopment. trimmed too little, too late and, rather than tackling problems The area sat vacant for several years, and the 7,000 black head on, hoped that deep-rooted structural problems would residents who were displaced moved to neighboring areas turn out to be cyclical downturns. where whites, in turn, left. Rather than ending blight, the project simply redistributed it. Charles E. Bowles, backed by the Ku Klux Klan, was in office for seven months in 1930 before people demanded his was considered a candidate of the wealthy and removal. His ascension to the mayor’s office was followed of the white during his tenure from 1950 to 1957. He declined by a spike in crime, and he was suspected to be linked to federal money for housing projects and facilitated the some of Detroit’s underworld figures, according to “Detroit: construction of freeways. Highways were being built across A Biography” by Scott Martelle. “The stories of gangland the country that encouraged suburbanization, but while the feuds and killings were diversions from the deeper agony rest of the nation was expanding, Detroit’s population was that spread across Detroit in the 1930s,” Mr. Martelle wrote. shrinking as people used the newly built roadways to leave. “Unemployment was high and deep poverty endemic.” 16 SHORTCOMINGS OF LEADERSHIP (continued)

Coleman A. Young was seen as a divisive figure in the 20 years he served as mayor. He won his first mayoral election in 1973, largely on the promise to ease tension between the police and black residents. But while many blacks saw him as a hero who pledged to fight crime, some whites felt he wasn’t looking out for their interests. Mr. Young seemingly breezed to second, third and fourth terms without making the expected bridge-building racial appeals. Isabel Wilkerson, writing in The New York Times in 1989, said the mayor, running in a city in which 70 percent of the voters were black, seemed “to revel in the sort of polarization that other politicians dread.” Though Mr. Young was credited with revitalizing the waterfront, the rest of downtown was often compared to a war zone, with neighborhoods crumbling, businesses boarded up and poverty remaining high.

Kwame M. Kilpatrick, who led Detroit from 2001 to 2008, was nicknamed the “hip-hop mayor” when first elected at 31, in part for his larger-than-life persona, flashy suits and the diamond stud in his ear. He brought new attractions to the city’s riverfront and much-needed business investment downtown, but he also increased the city’s debt obligations to fill budget gaps. After a series of scandals he resigned in 2008 and pleaded guilty later that year to obstruction of justice charges, served four months in jail and was ordered to pay $1 million to the city. He was behind bars two years later for hiding assets from the court, and in October he was sentenced to 28 years in prison after he was found guilty of racketeering, fraud and extortion.

Dave Bing, a former professional basketball star, took office in 2009 pledging to solve Detroit’s fiscal problems, which by then were already overwhelming. During his term, there were numerous announcements of cuts to the city’s work force, efforts to fill annual budget deficits and urgent calls for sacrifices from labor groups. Then in March the state appointed Kevyn D. Orr, a veteran lawyer, as an emergency manager to oversee the city’s operations, rendering Mr. Bing virtually powerless. Mr. Bing announced in May that he would not run for re-election. And in November , a former hospital executive who campaigned with the backing of Detroit’s business leaders, was elected mayor.

17 LACK OF AN EFFICIENT TRANSIT SYSTEM In the hometown of the auto industry, public policies “It’s almost like two Detroits,” Mr. Williams said. “The encouraged a car culture, with more money being invested light rail will go up to West Grand Boulevard, where all the in building highways rather than a public transportation development is taking place. The other side is where the system. poverty is.”

Efforts like Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Federal-Aid Highway Without an efficient mode of transportation over the past Act of 1956 helped fuel urban sprawl, and the city’s few decades, blacks and whites didn’t travel side by side as streetcar system was dismantled the same year. In the they did in other cities, a missed opportunity to ease racial 1980s, with federal aid, the city built its People Mover, a tensions, said Mr. Boyle, the historian. monorail that looped around three miles in the downtown “It makes a difference that you have to sit in a subway car area. The project was criticized as not being cost effective, or a bus with people who are of different races and different as it primarily serviced visitors to restaurants or the ethnicities, different ages different classes,” he said. “It stadium rather than helping the city’s residents get around creates a sense of connection, even if it’s just a superficial effectively. Though there is a bus system, it is thought to one.” be unreliable, said Mr. Williams of the National Action Network, a Detroit native. A light-rail system, backed in part by corporate donors, is slated to begin operating in early 2016.

Detroit's once-glamorous Michigan Theater, which is now used as a parking garage. Sean Doerr/WNET.org

18 Shuttered homes and businesses lined a street in downtown Detroit in 2008. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

IMPACT OF POVERTY Officials are now faced with trying to shrink the city, a poor have stayed in Detroit. The city’s unemployment complicated task because dilapidated homes and empty rate is about 19 percent, but the lack of a transportation lots are speckled throughout neighborhoods rather than system has prevented residents from commuting to jobs consolidated in convenient chunks. elsewhere. A plan to cut retiree pensions, which some estimate account for $3.5 billion of the city’s $18 billion in About 36 percent of the city’s population is below the debt, could worsen the lives of some. poverty level, and, by 2010, the residential vacancy rate was 27.8 percent. With fewer people paying taxes, the city As the city works to reinvent itself, it has drawn a community has starved financially and has struggled to maintain social of artists and young people with big dreams of a total services. Swaths of the city are in total darkness because makeover for Detroit. Mr. Williams said the challenge of non-functioning street lights. And the average police was to make sure longtime residents were included in the response time, including top priority calls, is 58 minutes, movement. according to a report by the emergency manager. “The people who are living in the city of Detroit, who have The student enrollment at Detroit’s public schools has been holding on,” he said, “they should be a part of the drastically declined to 52,981 in 2012 from 164,496 in 2002, progress.” according to Michelle A. Zdrodowski, a spokeswoman for the district. In response, several school buildings have been shuttered. Research contributed by SUSAN C. BEACHY Poverty has been exacerbated by middle-class black Additional Sources: Scott Martelle, “Detroit: A Biography” (2012) families’ moving to the suburbs to pursue jobs or better Darden, Joe T., “Detroit, Race and Uneven Development” (1987) schools, and to escape crime. Meanwhile, the city’s

19 PLAYWRIGHT DOMINIQUE MORISSEAU CAN’T FORGET THE MOTOR CITY By Alexis Soloski | December 30, 2015 | The New York Times

A few years ago, the playwright Dominique Morisseau and her husband, the musician James Keys, traveled back home for a wedding. On their way into the reception, they saw a woman sitting in a car packed with possessions. When they left, she was still there. Knocking on her window, they asked if they could help. The woman accepted some money and told them she’d be all right. “It’s a rough time right now, but I’m going to get through it,” Ms. Morisseau recalled her saying.

She and her husband then drove away, upset by the conversation. “It felt perverted,” said Ms. Morisseau, 37, who like her husband was born and raised in Detroit. “This is the Motor City. This is where people make cars. Now it’s become a city where people are living in their cars.”

She already had many friends and relatives affected by factory closings or house foreclosures. From their stories and from that encounter, she started to construct “Skeleton Crew,” the final play in her prizewinning Detroit trilogy, which begins previews on Wednesday, Jan. 6, at the Atlantic Theater Company. Set in 2008, it centers on several workers and a manager in the last small auto plant standing.

Ms. Morisseau’s plays include the earlier entries in the trilogy, “Detroit ’67,” which was staged at the Public Theater and won the Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama, and “Paradise Blue,” which is set in 1949 and played the Williamstown Theater Festival last summer. “Sunset Baby,” a contemporary play about a father jailed for activities in the black power movement and his grifter daughter, was produced by the Labyrinth Theater Company in 2013.

Her plays are both angry and empathetic, forthright about the faults of the characters they describe while ready to honor their desire, ambition and essential decency. “I can’t write a story until I know what my characters are willing to fight or die for,” she said on a recent evening after rehearsal, a few days before Christmas. “Then I know who they are.” “This is where people make cars,” Dominique Morisseau said of Detroit. “Now it’s become a city where people are living in their cars.”Credit: Ramsay de Give for The New York Times 20 Ms. Morisseau often wears her hair piled atop her head as a three-character piece soon swelled to a cast of 20 as and has a penchant for hoop earrings nearly as big as African-American women from all departments clamored dessert plates. On this night, she wore a sweatshirt from for a chance to represent themselves onstage. “I had the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center over a pink T-shirt dancers. I had extras. I had people just walk onstage and emblazoned “Soul Detroit.” just do nothing,” she said.

You can hear echoes of August Wilson in her work, of Even now she tries to remember that model. “Everybody Lorraine Hansberry, of Tennessee Williams, of Anton needs to see themselves,” she said. “We have to make Chekhov, but also a voice — seductive, poetic, comic, space.” tough — that is unmistakably her own. Her plays overflow with sensory detail: the music that excites and soothes her Still, it took her several years to return to playwriting. After characters, how they dance, what they wear, what they eat. graduation, she moved to New York and danced, briefly, but soon decided she would never be a star. (She may And as befits a writer who just finished a season on underrate herself. A video of her wedding dance, to an eight- Showtime’s “Shameless,” a series that wrings comedy minute medley ranging from hip-hop to boogie-woogie to from poverty, her plays have an acute focus on economics “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life,” has half a million hits on — who is living large, who is living out of a car, what it costs YouTube.) For a while, she made the performance poetry (financially and otherwise) just to get by. scene, until she started to feel that her art was suffering. “I was just writing poetry to win slams,” she said. Ms. Morisseau, who now splits her time between apartments in Bedford-Stuyvesant and North Hollywood, She began working with the Creative Arts Team at is a persuasive speaker who used to pay her with City College, creating educational theater highlighting her winnings from performance poetry slams. She is social issues. Lin-Manuel Miranda, the writer and star of outspoken, too. In her acceptance speech for a Steinberg “Hamilton,” was one former colleague. Inspired by her Playwright Award in November, she thanked the committee peers, she began writing one-act plays, which eventually for “allowing our rages to not be criminalized or become gave her the confidence to try a full-length, “Follow Me tools of shame.” to Nellie’s,” based on an aunt who had run a brothel in Natchez, Miss. In 2011, she joined the Emerging Writers She recently published an essay on the website for Group at the Public Theater, where she first conceived the American Theater magazine called “Why I Almost Slapped Detroit trilogy. a Fellow Theater Patron, and What That Says About Our Theaters.” A white woman who had donated a ticket to She’d been reading August Wilson’s 10-play cycle. She got Ms. Morisseau tried to quiet her enthusiastic response chills, she said, thinking about how people from Pittsburgh to a play. After the show, the two had an argument. Asked must feel when they encounter that work. “They have to feel why she hadn’t sought to calm or defuse the encounter, so documented, so like they matter,” she said. “They have Ms. Morisseau, in a follow-up phone conversation, replied: to feel so important. And I wanted to do that for Detroit.” “People are always asking people of color to have some Ten plays seemed like a lot, but she thought she could kind of superhuman patience. That is not reasonable.” manage three.

Ms. Morisseau grew up in the College Park neighborhood Sometimes, in the first two plays particularly, the demands of Detroit, in the same house where her parents still live. of plot overwhelm the characters and environments Ms. (This is the first year she didn’t make it back for Christmas, Morisseau creates. (Though, really, you could say the same a consequence of the rehearsal schedule.) She performed of Chekhov.) Ms. Morisseau doesn’t necessarily see this in plays at her father’s church and danced with her aunt’s as a fault. “I don’t know why we are so scared of drama,” troupe, the Detroit City Dance Company. She developed she said. “I love the drama. The more dramatic the better. I a crush on Shakespeare in middle school and starred in want to scream with the actors.” musicals throughout high school. The actors want to scream right back, joyfully. Lynda But when she arrived at the in Ann Gravatt, who has known Ms. Morisseau since her student Arbor, just 40 miles from home, she encountered a theater days and who played the lead in “Follow Me to Nellie’s,” department “that did not do a lot of nontraditional casting,” underwent a quadruple bypass last summer. But she she said. Roles in campus plays were few, and she had to wouldn’t let a little thing like heart surgery stop her from dig to find acceptable work for her scene study classes. starring in “Skeleton Crew.” Eager to create a role for herself, and having read, she admitted, a little too much Ntozake Shange, she wrote “I’m always very eager to go when she calls,” Ms. Gravatt and directed her first play, “The Blackness Blues — Time said. “Because I know there will be something for me to put to Change the Tune (A Sister’s Story).” What was intended my teeth into. The work is so tantalizing.” 21 In “Skeleton Crew,” Ms. Morisseau immersed herself Ms. Morisseau has made it a mission to put onstage people in the music of the factories and the choreography of of a race and class and type that much mainstream theater the assembly line. “It’s beautiful,” she said. “It’s fricking might ignore or demonize. The characters of “Skeleton theatrical; it’s gorgeous.” Crew” include an unmarried pregnant woman, a gun- packing young man, a middle-age homeless woman. She Faye, the seasoned worker played by Ms. Gravatt, speaks has compassion for all of them, these fusions of aunts and of her connection to the plant. “The walls talk to me,” Faye uncles, of cousins and friends, the people she remembers says. “The dust on the floors write me messages. I’m in from her upbringing and those she’s barely glimpsed on the vents. I’m in the bulletin boards. I’m in the chipped the street, people who are, she said, “being monstrified paint. Ain’t nobody can slip through the cracks past me by the rest of the country.” up in here.” “I love them and I want to write them,” she said. Ruben Santiago-Hudson, who directs “Skeleton Crew” and also directed “Paradise Blue” at Williamstown last summer, spoke admiringly of such richly textured speech and of Ms. Morisseau’s ability to create complicated and absorbing characters. “She shares the language and the rhythms of the people, the salt-of-the-earth, blue-collar people,” he said by telephone.

Photo by Ahron R. Foster.

A version of this article appears in print on January 3, 2016, on page AR6 of the New York edition with the headline: Don’t Forget the Motor City.

Photos on next page: Photo 1: Adesola Osakalumi. Photo by Ahron R. Foster Photo 2.: L to R, Jason Dirden and Lynda Gravatt rehearsing. Photo Credit: Ramsay de Give, The New York Times Photo 3: Nikiya Mathis. Photo by Ahron R. Foster Photo 4: Wendell B. Franklin. Photo by Ahron R. Foster Photo 5: Jason Dirden and Lynda Gravatt Photo 6: A scene from “Detroit ’67” at the Public Theater in 2013. L to R, De’Adre Aziza, Michelle Wilson, Francois Battiste and Brandon J. Dirden. Photo Credit: Chester Higgins Jr., The New York Times Photo 7: Lynda Gravatt. Photo by Ahron R. Foster Playwright, Dominique Morisseau with director, Ruben Santiago-Hudson at the first rehearsal of Skeleton Crew at Atlantic Theater Company. January 2016. 22 23 Section IV: ACTORS Your Students ACTORS As Actors Reading a Scene for Understanding Practical Aesthetics Exercise Mini-Lesson Vocabulary Scene Analysis Worksheet

24 “Actors should remain truthful to the story and their character.” - David Mamet, American playwright & noted actor, William H. Macy, Founders of Atlantic Theater Company The following activities are designed to assist your students in understanding the actor’s “job.” Like every job, even acting has its “tools.”

The Practical Aesthetics acting technique was developed by David Mamet, William H. Macy and the founding members of the Atlantic Theater Company. This technique offers the actor a set of analytical tools to understand the playwright’s intentions and what the characters want. This process of script analysis additionally helps define the actor’s job on stage.

25 Teacher Objective Practical Aesthetics Exercise To introduce the Practical Aesthetics “tools” for breaking down a scene. To understand Step One the character and the story of the scene by Divide the students in pairs. Ask relating the character’s actions to the the students to select which student’s own life. character they want to portray.

Student Goal Step Two To understand that an important part of Allow the students time to read the creating a simple, honest character involves scene silently to themselves. knowing what that character “wants.” Step Three Materials Ask the students to read the Introduction Pens, pencils, copies of the following scene from Skeleton to the Practical Aesthetics Acting Crew, and copies of the Literal, Want, Action, As-If worksheet Technique sheet on page 22 and and/or Mini-Lesson. answer the four questions on the Scene Analysis Worksheet.

Note: The four questions and the students’ answers to them form the basis for the Practical Aesthetics scene analysis; and enables the actor to create a simple, honest character— they’re simply being honest to their own experiences!

Step Four After the students have completed the question worksheet, ask each pair of actors to read the scene in the front of the class room for an “Audience.” The students should incorporate the ideas from the worksheet as they read the scene.

26 A SCENE FROM SKELETON CREW REGGIE Was um… lookin’ for you cuz I needed to talk…if you had a sec. [Faye eyes Reggie intensely.] FAYE [not a question] They shuttin’ us down, ain’t they. REGGIE How you--- FAYE I know you Reggie. Can read your face. Been lookin’ stressed for a week and then some. [beat] When you find out? REGGIE Last week. Harris pulled me into his office. FAYE Fuck. [Pause.] FAYE When they letting everybody know? REGGIE H-R is sending out the notice as soon details are final. FAYE How soon this happenin’? REGGIE Within the year, Faye. FAYE [sobering] FUCK. Another Pause. FAYE I hit thirty years at the end of the year. In October. We gonna be around that long? REGGIE Ain’t sure. FAYE [almost to herself] Retirement package be real different for 29 years versus 30. REGGIE I know. I’m thinking on it. Was coming to talk to you. Get the scoop on folks. See what I might be able to figure out for everybody before the news hits. Cuz once it does… … … FAYE What you gonna do? What about Cheryl and the kids? REGGIE I’ve been trying to figure that out. I only got 15 years on me. FAYE But you in a supervisory position. They gonna find you another job. Place you somewhere else. REGGIE Dalina just started high school. Got to save up for her college. And we just bought that house over in Sherwood. Couldn’t hardly believe we could afford it. But we got it, Faye. It’s ours. FAYE I know it. REGGIE I own something that can’t nobody take from me. That mean somethin’. FAYE It does. Means a lot. REGGIE Now you can’t say nothin’ about this. I’ll lose my job. You know that right? FAYE I know you don’t expect me to sit on this. That’s not what you was coming to ask me. REGGIE I was coming for your help. To work with you and figure out what we can do to soften this blow. But you can’t go taking this to the Union yet. I need you to wait and let the company do this right. FAYE Do this right? Only right way is straight up. I’m still the Rep. It’s my job to protect these folks. REGGIE Faye, I’m confiding in you. I’m putting myself on the line for you cuz I’m on your side. But I need you on mine. I need your guidance. Help me figure this out without sounding the alarm. FAYE Reggie--

REGGIE Please Faye 27 ANALYSIS Script analysis is the process of breaking down a beat within a scene. We ask four questions in order to do this.

1. What is the character literally doing? 2. What does the character want? 3. What is the essential Action? 4. What is that action like to me? It is As-If…

Literal As-If In this step, the actor determines what the character In this step, the actor personalizes the action he or she is playing is literally doing according to by finding a real-life situation in which they the text. would behave according to the action they have Purpose: An actor has to travel far—think of this chosen for the scene. preparation as the road map. Example: Get a favor. It’s AS-IF I forgot to do my science Want homework and I’m asking my teacher In this step, the actor identifies the goal of the for an extra day to hand it in. character in the scene, specifically what the character wants from the other character/s in the scene. The Purpose: To gain personal insight and given circumstances of the story inform the WANT. urgency to the scene or beat.

Purpose: To focus the actor on the characters’ Tactics & Tools interaction. Different ways an actor goes about getting his action. Action Playing an ACTION is the physical pursuit of a goal. Example: Plead, flirt, demand, inspire, Defining the ACTION of the scene allows the actor challenge, level, threaten. to determine what result or CAP he or she is looking for from the other actor/s in the scene. Living in the Moment Reacting impulsively to what the other actor Examples: in the scene is doing, from the point of view Put someone in their place. of the chosen action. Beg someone for forgiveness. Get a favor. Get someone to let me off the hook. Force someone to face the facts. Inspire someone to greatness. Get someone to see the light. Purpose: Using an action gives the actor a task and a specific point of view. The Atlantic Theater Company teaches that the Action creates character.

28 Mini-Lesson Vocabulary Acting Tactics & Tools to Use in The As-If Step

Literal: The process of accessing the basic story-line of the characters in a particular scene or beat. Want: The process of identifying the goal Laughing to get what you want of the character in a scene or beat. Teasing to get what you want Action: The actor’s physical pursuit of a specific goal. Testing to get what you want Threatening to get what you want As-If: A way to determine what this action means to me. Pleading to get what you want Flirting to get what you want Bartering to get what you want Bribing to get what you want Begging to get what you want Crying to get what you want Demanding to get what you want Leveling to get what you want Inspiring to get what you want Challenging to get what you want

29 Here are your “tools” for understanding your character:

IF YOU’RE PLAYING FAYE... IF YOU’RE PLAYING REGGIE...

Faye is literally talking to Reggie is literally talking to What is my character Reggie about what the fate Faye about how he should literally doing? for the factory workers will handle the news of the plant be after the plant pulls the closing down. plug.

Faye wants Reggie to Reggie wants Faye to use What does my understand that she must her delegate powers to character want? do what’s right for the defuse any rumors of the workers. factory shutting down.

To get someone to To get someone to make a What is the action I’m recognize an important sacrifice. going to play? truth.

It’s as-if my best friend, As if my job relocated to The As-If... David, wants me to cover Cleveland and I asked my for him and say that he is girlfriend, Sarah, to give up staying at my house when her glamorous NYC life to he is actually going on a trip live with me in Ohio. he was forbidden to go on.

30 ARTISTS Section V: ARTISTS Your Students As Artists Creative Response Activity Creative Writing Activity Challenging The Plot Common Core & DOE Theater Blueprint

31 “Create your own work.” - David Mamet, American playwright & noted actor, William H. Macy, Founders of Atlantic Theater Company

JASON DIRDEN and NIKIYA MATHIS in Atlantic’s Skeleton Crew. Photo Credit: Ahron R. Foster. January 2016

The following activities will assist your students in understanding themselves as artists creating original work that connects with their own experiences and world. 32 Teacher Objective Step One To develop Critical Thinking skills through examining a moment in Divide the students into pairs, asking Skeleton Crew and how to relate that moment to an individual creative them to read the final scene of Skeleton response. Crew on the next page.

Student Goal Step Two To understand that a critical moment from Skeleton Crew forms the Ask students to break down the scene truths and messages of the play. using the Atlantic Acting Technique on page 28.

Literal Want Action As-If Step Three Ask students to divide into pairs to break down the scene.

Step Four Ask students to share their choices/ insights on the scene, and discuss the variations of those choices.

33 A SCENE FROM SKELETON CREW FAYE Dez a good worker.

REGGIE I know it.

FAYE Stubborn , but a good worker.

REGGIE I know it Faye

FAYE Don’t do it Reggie. Don’t let ‘em do it.

REGGIE I’m trying --- I just can’t--- [beat] You know what Cheryl told me the other day when I come home?

FAYE What’s that.

REGGIE I look like I’m disappearing from myself.

FAYE You got a lotta stress. I’m tired of hearin’ that. You ain’t in a easy position.

REGGIE I’m sick of walking that line.

FAYE What line?

REGGIE Line that say I’m over here and you over there and even though we started with the same dirt on our shoes....I’m supposed to pretend like you ain’t more than an employee ID number. Like I don’t know what happens out there when you leave these plant grounds. Why every man feels the need to arm himself before he walks into the grocery store or drops his kids off at school. Like I don’t know the fear that’s come over all of us lately. Walk around with your manhood on the line cuz you never know who’s gonna try to take it from you. Cuz you never know when you’re gonna be the next one out there, desperate and needin’ to feed your family by any means necessary. I know Dez well, Faye. I look him in the eye and he scares the shit outta me. Cuz that invisible line between us.... it’s thin as hell.

FAYE We all walk that line. Any moment any one of us could be the other. That’s just the shit about life. One minute you passin’ the woman on the freeway holdin’ up the “will work for food “sign. Next minute, you sleepin’ in your car, damn near...

34 Teacher Objective Step One To develop critical thinking skills and emotional literacy through Write the names of all the characters on examining the characters in Skeleton Crew and how they relate to a the board and go through them with the student’s own experiences. students so they remember who is who.

Student Goal Step Two To understand connecting the vivid details of an artistic experience to Instruct students to write a letter as if they one’s own point of view stimulates individual imagination and are one of the characters. They should confidence. take on the persona of another character.

Materials Example: Dez writes to Shanita explaining Pencils, pens, writing paper, chalkboard. why being a part of Shanita’s world is important to him. Step Three Encourage students to ask questions, to offer advice, to share their true feelings about that character’s choices, etc. Really allow students to think freely.

Step Four Ask the students to share their letters for constructive feedback and discussion of the themes and issues of the play.

35 Teacher Objective Step One To develop critical thinking skills by challenging the plot of In pairs the students create their own Skeleton Crew. alternate ending, starting from the following closing line: Student Goal To understand that examining a story backwards and forwards, you can REGGIE see that each event was caused by something that happened prior, but On the floor everybody. Got a full day by examining it forwards, there is no way of knowing what can happen. today. Only way to get through it is to work together. Let’s go. Materials Pencils, pens, writing paper. Step Two Follow up: Ask the students to share their scene between Reggie and Dez or Dez and Shanita as they exit the break room.

Ask the students to consider how Reggie and Dez’ or Dez and Shanita’s’ relationship looks five minutes later, two days later, and a month later.

Allow the students to arrange their scene in chronological order to show the evolu- tion of the relationships

36 Enduring Understanding Strand Benchmarks Theater conveys the significance individuals place on THEATER MAKING: ACTING their life choices. For example: Jobs, relationships, Benchmark: Students increase their ability as hopes for the future. imaginative actors while continuing to participate as collaborative ensemble members. Students demonstrate Theater conveys the meaning behind an individual’s the ability to reflect on and think critically about their own struggle to have his or her life choices validated by family, work. friends and society/community.

Essential Questions THEATER MAKING: PLAYWRITING/PLAY MAKING Do the direction and staging reinforce the themes of Benchmark: Students refine their ability as playwrights what “life as a cog in a machine” is like as opposed to to express point of view and personal vision. having free will?

Do you accept the concept put forward in Skeleton Crew DEVELOPING THEATER LITERACY that workplace ethics and an individual’s ethics can Benchmark: Students develop skills as critics by reinforce or contradict one another? analyzing the critical writings of others.

MAKING CONNECTIONS THROUGH THEATER Benchmark: Students demonstrate a capacity for deep personal connection to theater and a realization of the meaning and messages of theater.

WORKING WITH COMMUNITY AND CULTURAL RESOURCES Benchmark: Students invigorate and broaden their understanding of theater through collaborative partnerships with theater professionals.

37 Section 6: The Atlantic Legacy Atlantic Theater Company & Atlantic Acting School

Inspired by the Group Theater, Stanislavsky, and a passion for ensemble acting, David Mamet and William H. Macy formed the Atlantic Theater Company with a select group of New York University Undergraduate drama students. Since its inception in 1985, Atlantic has produced more than 100 plays and garnered numerous awards, including: 12 , 15 , 16 OBIE Awards, six Outer Critics Circle Awards, seven Drama Desk Awards, three Drama League Awards, three New York Drama Critics Circle Awards and the for Drama. Noted productions include: Spring Awakening, Port Authority, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Boy’s Life, and American Buffalo. The Atlantic Theater Company’s mission is to produce plays simply and truthfully, utilizing an artistic ensemble. Atlantic believes that the story of the play and the intent of its playwright are at the core of a successful theatrical production.

The Atlantic Acting School fosters new generations of actors by passing on the tools learned from Mamet and Macy and by preparing students for all aspects of a career in film, television and theater. The Atlantic offers studies through New York University, a full-time conservatory program, part-time programs and summer workshops. Atlantic for Kids offers acting classes in an after school setting as well as summer programs for children ages 4 to 18.

Linda Gross Theater 336 West 20th Street New York, NY, 10011 Atlantic Stage 2 330 West 16th Street New York, NY, 10011

76 Ninth Avenue, Suite 537, New York, NY 10011 atlanticactingschool.org atlantictheater.org 38